Friday, November 30, 2012

November 2012 Review

November goals continue to move forward, despite the holidays.

1. Move better - I did all planned activity and continued eating for yoga.

Yoga went great, largely due to my lesson at the end of October. I did wheel in every class. Breathing with my movement during the vinyasa has fallen in place. Intentionally, strongly exhaling is letting me deeper into several postures, as well as allowing me to find rest in a number of other poses. I managed to get a full bind in half moon during one class. I practiced mindful breathing a few times and tried a few alternate, lower intensity yoga classes. If progress continues like this during December, I will be very happy.

Lifting has resumed slow, forward progress. I attribute this to changes in my diet. I have managed to compensate for the smaller, yoga friendly meals by leaning heavily on pre-made, high protein foods. It's a pain, but I am eating immediately before and after bed, as well as every 2-3 hours in between. Chasing target trendlines on the 5/3/1 main lifts may also be helping.

The skin tear on my big toe healed. I learned to put more weight on the ball of my foot during certain yoga poses. Gluing the rip shut with new skin also helped. I am using the new skin early now, whenever I see a small tear forming. Between lifting and yoga, I've had to learn far more about skin care than I ever wanted.

My injured thumb is not back at 100%, but it is improving. I replaced the accessory lifts that were stressing it highly (overhead squats, renegade rows, kettlebell clean and press) with more basic lifts (kettlebell squats, one arm rows, bottoms up press). I started including some light gripper, pinch and finger extension work in every lifting session. I also started repping out an easy gripper prior to yoga class, warming the muscles in my hands and wrist before I load them. With all these changes together, I am no longer limited on what poses I can do during yoga. I think the hand will be fully healed by the end of December. Once recovered, I am not sure how many of these changes I will have to keep long term.

2. Beat the internet - This will be an ongoing battle. I am certainly no longer wasting hours a day on message boards and news sites. Still, I find myself making "just one exception" a little too often. I know the web is a burden on my time, but operating without it leads to a higher level of uncertainty, which I am still getting comfortable with. I did purchase a Garmin, which eliminates one of the biggest reasons for internet exceptions.

With my foot healed, I've been able to resume walking. Between walking, yoga, seeing people, lifting, video games and other life demands, I am busy morning to night. I'm not even really sure how I was making the time for so much internet in the past. If I do manage to fit any charity work in, it will have to be done as a social activity.

Time boxing work is going well. My most important tasks always gets done, and the stuff I leave unfinished has yet to become a problem. I never get the satisfaction of completing "everything", but that's a false achievement anyway. There's always more work.

3. Make my money work - I continue buying time through pre-made foods. The contractor did not come back this month. I made my yearly Roth IRA contribution and adjusted my mortgage payment to a more aggressive schedule.

I have made no progress on the Investment Science book. I think once I gain momentum it will be easy going, but making that initial push is tough. A few times a week, I have a little whisky. I am going to give that up until I am through the book, repurposing the time. If I am not done by end of December, my video game time will be next.

4. Socialize - I did a bunch of yoga, including a community yoga class. Community yoga might not be for me on a regular basis, but it was something new with new people. I tried a yoga class at my Mom's health club as well. I went to a party where people played games, another where people cooked together. At the cooking party, I made something new. Otherwise, all my activity was consumption based. I had people over for a party, shared several meals a week with people, and went to multiple Thanksgivings, including hosting one.